United subsidiary Continental Airlines 737-800. Courtesy, UCH

United Continental Holdings (UCH) said Monday its subsidiary Continental Airlines (CO) operated a Boeing 737-800 on a scheduled flight from Houston Intercontinental to Chicago O’Hare using a fuel blend partially comprised of algae-derived biofuel. It marked the first scheduled, commercial biofuel flight operated in the US.

“Roughly four months since the approval of hydroprocessed renewable fuels in commercial aviation [ ATW Daily News June 13 ], we are excited to see the deployment of these fuels on a domestic US flight,” US Air Transport Assn. (ATA) VP and chief economist John Heimlich said in a statement.

CO-parent UCH said San Francisco-based Solazyme worked with Honeywell UOP to develop “the algae oil that was refined into jet fuel to power today’s commercial flight.” The fuel is partially made up of “100% algae-derived jet fuel,” UCH stated.

UCH said Monday it signed a letter of intent with Solazyme “to negotiate the purchase of 20 million gallons of jet fuel per year, derived exclusively from algae oil, for delivery as early as 2014.”